Pavement LCA

Athena Pavement LCA is a free LCA-based software package that measures environmental impact of Canadian and US roadway designs.

The Athena Pavement LCA (desktop) tool provides environmental LCA results for Canadian and select US regional materials manufacturing, roadway construction and maintenance life cycle stages. It allows custom roadway design, or users can draw from a library of over 50 existing roadway designs. The software includes a large equipment and materials database and the flexibility to specify unique pavement systems – sub-base and base granular materials as well as hot and warm mix asphalt and a host of user-specified concrete mix designs. Users can also input use-phase operating energy and apply built-in pavement vehicle interaction algorithms, if desired, to be included in the final LCA results. The software allows for quick and easy comparison of multiple design options over a range of expected roadway lifespans.

The Pavement LCA web app is a web application that provides environmental LCA and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) results for Canadian and select US regional materials manufacturing, roadway construction and maintenance life cycle stages. It allows custom roadway design, or users can draw from a library of over 50 existing roadway designs. It can be run on any modern standards compliant web browser.

This software was made possible by support from the Cement Association of Canada and Athena Institute members. The earlier software prototype and beta version was developed in association with transportation engineers at Morrison Hershfield, and was funded by Environment Canada.

The Athena Institute is interested in hearing from potential partners in the further development of this tool for other N. American locations and customized needs.